


A Life-Changing Lunch Date

by ellebeedarling



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, M/M, No Reaper AU, oblivious idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:15:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,115
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23151571
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ellebeedarling/pseuds/ellebeedarling
Summary: What started out as lunch turned into the best sex of their lives, and as the weeks wear on, Scott grows more and more attached to the savior of the galaxy. What will this mean for them when they reach Andromeda?
Relationships: Male Ryder | Scott/Male Shepard
Comments: 2
Kudos: 26
Collections: Spectre Requisitions 2020





	A Life-Changing Lunch Date

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thisnewjoe](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thisnewjoe/gifts).



> Happy Spec Rec!! My favorite time of the year! It's so great to see all our little rare pairs getting so much love. This is a particular favorite of mine so I was really happy to get to write for it. I really hope you enjoy it! 
> 
> Housekeeping: 
> 
> No Reaper AU
> 
> Special thanks to my incredible beta! You know who you are. You always make my stories better!! ♥

Scott sat in the reception area of his dad’s office, which was a bit of a grandiose term for the space. The Andromeda Initiative, while funneling massive amounts of money into the project, wasn’t sparing much on aesthetics at its roughhewn headquarters. In truth, if one didn’t know better, the offices might make one question the validity of the project. 

He hunched in a corner of the tiny room, the receptionist, a frazzled human man, sighing wearily over a stack of datapads at the desk across from him. There was so little space between Scott’s corner and the receptionist’s desk that Scott’s knees rubbed against the front panel. 

He stood - would have paced if there had been room. He was overdue for a meeting with his father. A meeting which should have begun forty-five minutes ago. “This is kind of important,” he huffed to the man, who didn’t even have the courtesy to look up from his datapad. He was supposed to meet his twin sister Sara for a biotiball match in fifteen minutes, so maybe it wasn’t life or death. Still, Sara could be a pill if he was late, and this had become something of a tradition for them. A way to catch up after their busy schedules kept them separated for long stretches at a time. He didn’t  _ want _ to stand her up. 

“Fuck this,” Scott murmured under his breath and palmed the access panel to his dad’s office. The receptionist squeaked out a protest, but Scott paid no attention. All his focus was now on the man sitting across from his dad’s desk. 

“Scott,” Alec Ryder said with undisguised annoyance. He waved at the man opposite him. “Commander John Shepard please meet my impatient son.” 

“I’m sorry, sir,” Scott practically stammered. “I-”

“Pleased to meet you, Scott.” Shepard stood and extended his hand. “No need for apologies. I was just leaving.” 

He looked up a couple of inches into the blue eyes of the Hero of the Citadel. Shepard’s exploits in the Alliance Navy were legendary. He couldn’t fathom what the man could be doing here. Shepard stared back at him, a tiny grin twisting his lips. Scott’s breath caught in his throat and any words he might have said hung there with it. Shepard’s wry smile grew into something mimicking amusement. 

The Spectre turned to face Alec Ryder. “It was good to see you again, Alec. I’ll be waiting for that information.” Shepard strode out the door, managing to lend something of a regal air to the ramshackle rooms. Scott’s gaze stayed glued on the man’s exit point until he heard his father clear his throat. 

He felt the blush creeping across his cheeks and slowly turned to face his dad. “Sorry, I-”

Alec Ryder grinned at him and waved away his apology. “You always were impetuous.” 

Scott rolled his eyes. He’d utterly forgotten why he’d needed to see his dad in the first place. The sight of John Shepard sitting there looking so… fuckable had erased his memory and short-circuited all higher brain function. His dad seemed all too aware of where his thoughts had gone, even going so far as to attempt hiding a chuckle behind the palm of his hand. It was then that Scott realized he’d been staring at the door again.

“Shepard’s applied to join the Initiative,” Alec Ryder informed him, voice assuming his typical business-like tone. “I’m going to recommend him as head of Nexus security. He’s one of the finest soldiers I’ve seen and I think it’s naive of us to head into a new galaxy without any form of military might to protect us from potential dangers.” 

He knew his dad was still talking but Scott had stopped paying attention after the sentence, “Shepard’s applied to join the Initiative.” Why this suddenly seemed like the divines smiling upon him, he had no idea, but facts were facts. Or opinions were opinions. However one wanted to phrase it, Scott was suddenly bombarded with images of a possible future that really was too much for a man like him to hope for. The impossibility didn’t dissuade him though. 

His dad outright laughed before passing him a handful of datapads. “Here. Get your head out of your ass and work on filling those out. I need them by sixteen hundred tomorrow. You’ll have six hundred years to indulge your fantasies. In the meantime, get to work.” 

Scott knew a dismissal when he heard one. Listlessly, he picked up the stack of pads and wandered from the room. He drew up short when he caught sight of Shepard leaning against the far wall (which wasn’t actually all that far away, given the sparse dimensions of the room) arms crossed over his chest. The man wore the smuggest grin Scott had ever seen in his life. 

“Scott, right?” Shepard began, still leaned casually against the wall. The harried receptionist eyed them both suspiciously, as Scott’s heart did all sorts of acrobatics inside his chest cavity.

“That’s right. I was just picking up my latest assignment from-”

“Got time to grab a bite to eat?”    
  


“I…” Scott paused, scratched the back of his head, not exactly sure what to make of this man, and utterly forgetting his date with his sister. “Sure?” 

“Perfect,” Shepard said, smile widening. “My place isn’t too far from here.” 

Shepard’s apartment was huge. Scott stood staring around the space for a full five minutes while Shepard rummaged around in the refrigerator. He wandered over to the piano that stood to his left and plunked a few keys. “You play?” 

“Not a lick,” Shepard called back from the kitchen. 

Scott’s own mother had insisted on piano lessons when he was a kid, but his piano teacher also happened to be an excellent baker. Scott looked forward to the lessons for the goodies his teacher left out for him, but never really mastered anything beyond Mary Had a Little Lamb. He didn’t think that would really impress Shepard so he turned away from the instrument. 

“The place isn’t really mine,” Shepard went on. “I’m just keeping an eye on it for a friend.” 

He had to wonder what sort of people could not only afford an apartment like this but also didn’t mind loaning it out to their friends. He drifted around the space as Shepard puttered around the kitchen. It was a stark contrast to the Initiative headquarters he’d been ensconced just a few minutes ago. 

A huge fireplace took center stage in the room, and he could see a bar just beyond it. There were two sets of staircases flanking either side of the large kitchen, along with hallways that presumably led to bedrooms or offices or some such. 

But the view of the Silversun Strip was the most impressive part of the portrait to Scott’s mind. He could almost feel the energy of the people as they whizzed past, the muted thump of bass from nearby clubs, the wild hum of neon covering every edifice. It was breathtaking in a strange sort of way. And Shepard’s apartment blocked out most of the noise and bustle. It was like watching life go by in silence. It mesmerized him. 

When Shepard spoke again, his voice was a low rumble in Scott’s ear as he stood just behind him, “I don’t really cook either. Just wanted to get you alone.” 

Scott shivered, both from Shepard’s startling proximity and from the blatant proposition in his words. “You mean I was led here under false pretenses?” 

“Well, I honestly thought I had something I could throw together, but I find myself extremely distracted by your ass as you wander around my apartment. It should be a criminal offense to have an ass like this. Especially in those pants.” Shepard’s fingers ghosted lightly over the curve of Scott’s ass, lips just a hair’s breadth from the shell of his ear. 

If he thought his brain was short-circuited before, he hadn’t considered what actual, physical contact with Shepard would do to him. His dick was already hard and straining painfully against his zipper. Shepard’s warm breath on his neck and his tantalizing scent were driving him mad.

“You sure this is wise?” he managed to ask before they crossed a line they couldn’t come back from. “Fucking around with your new boss’ son?” 

Shepard chuckled - a deep, dark thing. “First of all, Alec isn’t now and never will be my  _ boss _ . Secondly, no it’s probably not wise to be fucking around with my friend’s son, but I’m pretty sure that neither of us gives a damn.” 

“You’d be right about that.” He turned to find Shepard’s lips, warm and inviting, arms twining around one another. It was very possible that this was some elaborate dream he was having, likely induced by the mind-numbing stack of datapads he knew were facing him in his very near future. For now, he decided to go with it, holding nothing back from the human Spectre with the roving hands and positively sinful scent. 

Shepard grabbed hold of Scott’s ass cheeks, then hoisted him up onto the piano without breaking their kiss. It was an impressive display of both strength and prowess that Scott was in no way swooning over like a teenager. He was an adult now, dammit. 

“What?” Shepard had pulled away to give him a quizzical look, and Scott realized he’d said that aloud. Or at least murmured it into Shepard’s very red and puffy lips. 

“Nothing.” He closed his eyes and blindly searched for those lips once again. Shepard did not disappoint. Their mouths melded back together as if they’d been created for just this purpose. Scott was already convinced that no sex would ever compare after this, and they hadn’t even done anything that actually constituted sex at this point. 

Hands tugged at his shirt, and he reluctantly broke free of Shepard’s lips in order to yank his shirt over his head. Shepard did the same, then they were slotted back together. Only now, his hands had access to acres of gloriously smooth, warm skin. His fingers traced the outline of muscles on Shepard’s chest and back. He took great pride and pleasure in the hitching breath that Shepard dragged in after Scott ran the pads of his thumbs over the man’s nipples. 

“C’mere.” Shepard pulled him back down off the piano and began working the clasp of his belt. Scott’s fingers trembled as he mirrored the man, anticipation making the task more difficult than it should have been. The impressive bulge he spied in Shepard’s trousers only served to heighten his excitement. He couldn’t resist cupping it in his palm and giving a gentle squeeze. 

Shepard’s head fell back as he groaned, and the spike of desire that shot through Scott’s system propelled him into action. Reversing their positions, he pinned Shepard against the piano and dropped to his knees, fishing out the man’s erection and swallowing him to the hilt. Shepard gave a loud curse, then wove his fingers tightly into Scott’s hair. 

Scott ignored the momentary pain and went to town. Shepard was long and thick, filling his mouth completely, but not so much that it prevented him from taking his entire dick into the back of his throat. Shepard’s strangled cry sounded more like a symphony of angels to Scott’s ears. 

As Shepard relaxed his grip on Scott’s hair, he was able to find a nice rhythm of bobbing deep then pulling back to use his tongue to toy with the head. Shepard looked dazed when Scott glanced up at him. Lips swollen, red, and shiny hung open in a perfect “oh” of pure bliss as hooded eyes gazed down on him with something akin to admiration. Scott couldn’t help feeling more than a little pleased with himself. 

His fingers played and tugged at the man’s balls. Shepard seemed to like this even more, but when those same fingers slid back between the man’s cheeks, Shepard stopped. “I don’t bottom on the first date,” he declared with seriousness. Scott would have laughed if it hadn’t been such a shock to his system. 

He recovered quickly, smirking up at the Commander. “This is hardly a date. You didn’t even buy me lunch.” 

“I fed you my dick,” Shepard reminded him with a salacious grin.    
  


“Which so far has left me sadly unsatisfied.” 

Shepard barked a laugh and pulled Scott to his feet. “That’s an awfully smart mouth.”    
  
“But you’re already impressed by the things it can do.”    
  


“Fuck,” Shepard groaned, “I really am.” 

He kissed Scott gently, but there was no less fire contained in the expression. It curled and danced through Scott’s veins until the places where his body touched Shepard’s were the only things he could clearly focus on. Everything else that surrounded them was a blur, a distant memory to be pondered at a later date. 

A moment later, Shepard had turned them and lifted him onto the piano again. Briefly, he wondered what it said about him that he sorta got a thrill out of being manhandled, then let the thought die away when Shepard urged him to lie back with a firm hand to the center of his chest. Just as quickly as he’d been placed atop the piano, his boots and trousers were removed and he found himself lying completely naked on top of a piano in the first human Spectre’s borrowed apartment. Talk about a surreal moment. 

Of course, Shepard didn’t give him much time for considering this new situation. He kissed a fiery trail down Scott’s stomach, twirled his tongue around the head of his cock exactly once, then continued downward before pushing Scott’s legs up and burying his face between his cheeks. 

“You don’t bottom,” Scott gasped, “but no... qualms about eating... ass on the first date?” 

“I know what I like,” Shepard murmured, then lifted his head. “But I can stop-”

“No! For the love of all that’s holy, don’t fucking stop!” 

Shepard laughed that black laugh again and resumed his ministrations. Scott couldn’t even see straight at this point. He lost the will to worry about being nervous or embarrassed or any other negative emotion he might have been experiencing in this situation if he were with anyone else. And it did occur to him that he’d never felt quite so free to be himself during sex before. Which included vocalizing rather loudly when Shepard slid a finger in alongside his tongue and honed in directly on Scott’s prostate. 

“Just fuck me already. God damn.” 

“You’re not ready,” Shepard muttered, but he redoubled his efforts in an attempt to prepare him quicker. For which Scott would be eternally grateful. It felt like they’d been at this for hours, though in reality, it had probably only been a few minutes. And as much as Scott wanted this to last for years, he couldn’t shake the sense that he’d explode both literally and metaphorically if he couldn’t be given some sort of relief. And soon. 

A second finger joined the first at last, and Scott vaguely registered the slick glide of lube. Here was a man who carried lube around in his pockets - evidently - and didn’t like bottoming but didn’t mind eating out a practical stranger on the first date. Was it too soon to declare himself in love?

When Shepard reached three fingers, Scott squirmed away and declared himself ready, potential pain be damned. He needed Shepard inside him hours ago, though he hadn’t known it. With another dangerous laugh, Shepard pulled him down from his perch, and Scott found himself bent over, face plastered to the piano top. 

As quickly as they’d gone from zero to light speed, Scott felt a moment of apprehension as Shepard lined himself up. He needn’t have worried though. Shepard was slow and careful, tending to Scott’s comfort as much as to his pleasure. He draped himself over Scott’s back, whispering soothing words into his ear as he eased himself inside, inch by inch. 

When Shepard bottomed out, they both moaned, and Shepard stilled to give them both time to adapt. He gripped Scott’s dick with barely-there pressure, phantom strokes keeping him interested during those awkward few moments of adjustment to one another. 

“You feel so fucking good,” Shepard whispered, and Scott could almost hear the strain in the man’s voice. He gave an experimental thrust that lit Scott’s nerve endings on fire, and Scott responded by bucking his hips against Shepard’s. The frantic pace of before resumed.

Scott braced himself as best he could against the piano top, while Shepard kept a death grip on his hips. Their mingled moans and cries of pleasure echoed throughout the room as their bodies crashed together. Time stood still around them. He caught their reflection in the windows - the blissed-out look on Shepard’s face, the way the lights from the strip gleamed in the sweat that trickled down the man’s torso, the way his body moved as he plunged into Scott over and over. 

“Fuck, Shepard,” he groaned, closing his eyes to the sight. This was it. He was ruined for sex with anyone else. Ever. Then Shepard shifted. Somehow managing to angle his cock directly into Scott’s prostate. How the fuck, even? The neon and whizzing of air cars outside morphed into an explosion of stars in Scott’s vision. “Shepard, I-”

“Are you close? Fuck, please tell me you’re close.” 

“Close,” Scott agreed, then gripped his dick, stroking in frenzied desperation. His orgasm rose swiftly and broke free violently, setting off a thousand explosions in his brain. He barely registered the stuttering of Shepard’s hips as the man emptied inside him. Then Shepard’s arms were around him in a death grip, and the pair of them were sliding to the floor, landing in a tangled heap. 

Scott lay in a daze, staring up at the strobe-effect of the lights from the strip on the ceiling. His head nestled into the crook of Shepard’s hip, and he listened intently to the man’s greedy gasps for air. 

“God damn,” Shepard murmured, and Scott hummed in agreement. His fingers drew lazy patterns on Shepard’s thigh as they both struggled to catch their breath. 

“I’m starving,” Scott blurted, then bolted upright. “Sara! Oh shit, oh shit!” He jumped up and began an urgent search for his clothes.    
  
“Sara?” Shepard asked, still sprawled naked on the floor. The man looked thoroughly debauched and delicious, and Scott wanted to weep at the thought of walking away right now. 

“My twin,” Scott lamented. “We were supposed to meet…” He glanced at his chrono. “Shit. Two hours ago.” He was more than a little impressed that he and Shepard had been going at it that long. 

He’d just pulled his pants on when Shepard’s arms came around his waist from behind, lips descending on his neck. “So call her and ask for a rain check. I believe I promised you food. And I have a hot tub upstairs. Just think of all the fun we could have in it.” 

Sara would understand, right? No. She absolutely wouldn’t understand. She was already going to be so pissed that he’d bailed on their game. And as much as the idea appealed to him of shirking all responsibility to stay and play in Shepard’s little fantasy love shack, he did have a job to do. His father would be even less understanding than his sister. 

“Uh… could I get a rain check?” 

Shepard turned him around. “I’d kiss you, but you know… ass-breath.” 

Scott snorted. 

“Sure I can’t convince you to stay?” 

“You could easily convince me to come back,” Scott offered, tucking his bottom lip between his teeth while he awaited Shepard’s answer.

“Dinner, maybe?” 

His knees buckled with relief. “Definitely dinner,” he said, mind already spinning with ideas for their meeting later that night. 

\-----

  
  


Things went on much the same for the last few weeks of preparations. Scott did his work, focusing on getting his assignments done as early as possible so that he could sneak away to Shepard’s apartment for long nights of life-affirming sex. He was exhausted, but soon he’d be asleep for several centuries. He had time to make up for all the sleep deprivation he was currently experiencing. 

“What made you decide to join the Initiative?” he asked Shepard as the pair of them lay curled together in Shepard’s massive bed. 

“I feel like I’ve achieved all I can here. I’m still just a Commander, despite my accomplishments - being the first human Spectre, stopping the geth attack on the Citadel. My ‘recklessness’ is frowned upon by the brass. They’re afraid of what’ll happen if they promote me further. I guess… I don’t want to be a government pawn anymore. I want the chance to prove my merit on my own.” 

“What about your family?” 

Shepard disentangled himself and sat up, running a hand over his shorn head before standing. “Don’t have any.” 

Scott watched him disappear into the bathroom and felt like an ass. He knew that. It was pretty much common knowledge that the first human Spectre’s family had been killed by batarian slavers on the colony of Mindoir when Shepard was only sixteen. Just a kid. 

He felt the need to hold the man close and offer him some sort of comfort, and the idea of that scared the hell out of him. This was just a fling, right? A fun way to pass the time while they waited for departure day. Just a distraction from the fears of leaving behind everything they knew to seek adventure in another galaxy. 

He couldn’t afford to let himself get any more involved than he already was. The fact that he felt compelled to ease the man’s pain was a sign that he was already in too deep, wasn’t it? But if he left now, wouldn’t he be a jerk of epic magnitude? 

With a frustrated groan, he heaved himself out of bed and followed Shepard. “Listen, I’m sorry,” he said.

Perplexed, Shepard turned to look at him. “For what?” 

“For the question about your family.” Scott glanced around and realized that Shepard was emptying his things out of the drawers in the bathroom. “Going somewhere?” 

“Yeah, gonna go see some old friends on Earth one last time, ya know? I’ll probably be gone until d-day.” 

“Oh.” Scott’s heart plummeted to his feet. Hadn’t he just been the one thinking that things were happening too fast, that he was getting too attached? But to hear Shepard’s admission that yes, this was nothing more than sex, was painful because he wouldn’t be leaving with barely a word of good-bye if it were something more, right? “Yeah,” he tried again with forced enthusiasm. “Yeah. A good idea.” 

“There’s no one you want to say good-bye to?” 

Scott stared at Shepard long and hard. This was not how he’d envisioned the end. “Nah,” he said at last. “I guess we’ve pretty much said all that needs to be said.” 

Shepard’s brows flicked down in confusion for a moment, and he stopped, turning to face Scott fully. “Hey. I don’t know what you think is happening here, but-”

“Shepard, save it, alright? I mean we’re both adults, and-”

Warm lips cut off his surge of words, and he melted into them, convinced he’d never be able to do anything less. Shepard pulled away and cupped Scott’s cheeks in his hands. “I meant to say something sooner. I’m sorry. I.. well, to be frank, I’ve been a fucking coward about this. I… I wanted to tell you before how much you mean to me but then I thought maybe it was too soon and now… now it’s too late. I’m sorry.” 

A sad smile pulled at Scott’s lips. What a couple of oblivious idiots they were. “I hope it’s not too late,” he said truthfully. “I… I’ve been just as much of a coward.” 

Shepard smiled and kissed him sweetly. “We have some seriously shitty timing, don’t we?” 

“Absolutely.” Scott wrapped his arms around the man, resting his head on Shepard’s shoulder.

“Is it too much to ask… I mean,” Shepard drew a deep breath. “I’d like us to continue where we left off… when we get to Andromeda.” 

More than anything, Scott wanted to say yes. He’d grown quite attached to Shepard over these weeks. Maybe their relationship had potential. Maybe one day it’d be something more than just the best sex of his life. His heart already ached with the longing that only comes from being separated from ones held dear. 

Instead of responding, he kissed Shepard again, desperate and full of hope. “I’ll see you when we get there.” 

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope you enjoyed this! Have no fear; I've already plotted out additional chapters, so with any luck, this is just the first chapter of a longer fic. ☺


End file.
